Hurdling onto the vault, balancing with precision on beam, flipping off the bars, and leaping across the floor. The Varsity Gymnastics team has been hard at work since the start of February break.
The team participated in their first meet on March 25, an away meet at Mt. Carmel. Highlights from the meet were Analisa Singer’s 9.00 on Beam and Elise Stiritz’s 7.8 on Bars.
Sophomores Analisa Singer and Elise Stiritz compete for the Level 5, Varsity Compulsory team. Sophomore Juliana Estacio and junior Lillyanna Neblia are representatives for the Level 7, Varsity Optional team, as they have unique and creative routines with fun and innovative music.
These athletes train six days a week, and despite their intense preparation for meets with conditioning, repetition, and drills, challenges are still an obstacle for the gymnasts.
“This season, my biggest challenge is getting my floor routine down. The thing that surprised me most was the high school gymnastics floor. Unlike club gymnastics, we compete on a dead mat in high school and not a spring floor. This makes tumbling a challenge and harder to showcase,” sophomore Juliana Estacio said.
The gymnasts began their season with an annual team bonding activity. All the gymnasts received a pair of black warm-up soffe shorts to decorate creatively with puffy paint. Some painted their shorts in Titan colors, some drew gymnastics symbols, some put their names on their shorts, and some put their team level.
Another tradition the gymnastics team participates in is a pasta team dinner party. “The team dinner the night before competition cheers everyone on the team up and gets us hyped for the meet the next day,” sophomore Elise Stiritz said.
The girls’ on the Gymnastics team have illustrated their love for the sport by participating in Gymnastics from a young age. “I have been doing gymnastics since I was six years old, so for ten years,” junior Lillyanna Neblina said.
The team is ready to flip over their feet this season